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Rivian’s RJ Scaringe talks on-site farming plans for employees, battery storage solutions
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently shared insights about the company’s psychology in a livestreamed conversation with professional rock climber Alex Honnold and Rich Roll, a long-time wellness advocate and endurance athlete. As Rivian develops the manufacturing capabilities necessary to build its all-electric R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV at market scale, serious consideration is going into how to harness their team’s energy into an industrial system that works for everyone involved.
“So, industrial systems you have very often are very much class-based system – the white collar workforce, the blue collar workforce – there’s a whole host of things that lead those two sides to often having friction. We see how unions have come in to sort of help try to make those two work a little bit better together. But, a big part of what we’re doing right now is actually mapping out and thinking about the psychology of our company and the psychology of this facility,” Scaringe detailed during the event.
One of the unique things Rivian has inherited during its growth into a full-fledged auto manufacturer is the work force from the 2.6 million square foot plant the company purchased from Mitsubishi. Scaringe described the human story of the facility as “remarkable”, citing how many of the people currently there were part of the original launch team that later had to shut the facility down.
“So, 1989-1990, there are people that are 21-22 years old, they launched the facility….25-30 years go by, they’re part of the team running it, building it, now have to shut this facility down,” Scaringe described. “When we bought the facility, we not only just got the hardware, the acreages of land…[Now] we’ve got a team of people that’s passionate about restarting the facility.”
The company hopes the motivation to restart the plant under a Rivian badge will carry over into a win-win for all involved.
“It’s really remarkable. I mean, I think we’ve got a gift to work with in terms of that level of energy and that passion to bring it back to life,” the CEO said. “As we think about how do we take this gift that we’ve been given in terms of a workforce that’s so motivated, and how do we challenge a lot of the conventions that have been built up in terms of industrial systems…we’re doing a lot of things in the facility to really take that energy and supercharge it, really harvest it.”
One of the ideas Rivian is working to benefit on-site employees utilizes the resources inherited from the plant itself. The acreage surrounding the actual facility isn’t entirely needed for production purposes, so the car maker is planning to partner with local universities for food production from ground to plate.
“We have 508 acres at the plant, a very small percent of which actually has the plant occupying it – most of it’s just grass. We’re gonna be turning a lot of that into an area to grow food. And we’re gonna run that in partnership with some of the local universities through their agriculture programs to grow food locally on our site…and then that food’s gonna be served in our facility with students that are learning from top chefs we’re bringing in to run the food services in our facility, and we’re gonna provide incredible food to our plant team regardless of what part of the plant you work in,” Scaringe revealed.
“[That way]…there’s true equity. Every employee is part of this mission of bringing this facility back up. And that positive energy that we’re establishing at the plant, we want it to be a benchmark for how industrial systems are run – the collaboration, the communication between groups, between our other facilities.”
The conversation with Rich Roll and Alex Honnold primarily involved another part of the company’s psychology – helping to accelerate widespread adoption of renewable energy. Rivian has partnered with the Honnold Foundation to use the electric truck maker’s “second-life” auto batteries for a micro-grid solar system in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Through this project and others in the future, older battery cells that are no longer efficient for electric vehicles are repurposed into stationary energy storage units.
Adjuntas was selected as their first project site due to the town’s need for energy assistance after struggling in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017. The Honnold Foundation and Rivian will be using 135 kWh battery packs from R1T and R1S development vehicles for that particular grid project; however, cells going into Rivian’s production vehicles have been purposefully designed to have a “second life” in energy storage. The move towards energy projects marks a huge step for Rivian, signaling its expansion beyond the manufacture of all-electric luxury adventure vehicles.
Rivian’s first vehicle deliveries to customers are still planned for the end of 2020. Scaringe said during the event that around 800 members of their preorder community, i.e., reservation holders, were in attendance at the event with Roll and Honnold, so a further manufacturing update was provided with that in mind.
“There’s a lot of stuff happening [at the plant]. We’re moving equipment, we’re putting new equipment in. We’ve got amazingly talented people working day and night to bring that facility up and start delivering cars as quickly as possible,” he promised.
Watch RJ Scaringe, Alex Honnold, and Rich Roll discuss the Honnold Foundation and Rivian’s facility details in the video below:
Tesla has finally clarified the situation regarding the viral crash in Texas where a Model 3 slammed into a home.
CEO Elon Musk replied to reports on Monday that stated the crash was due to the company’s Full Self-Driving or Autopilot suite, which seemed unlikely to those who are familiar with it. Video showed the car slamming into a house at an excessive rate of speed, making it highly unlikely the crash was due to the suite’s operation, as it does not travel at those speeds in residential areas.
Musk said:
“This makes no sense. FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash!”
Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, added context, revealing that the company’s data shows the driver “manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.”
He revealed the speed reached by the car was 73 MPH, and the accelerator was still pressed “even after the crash.”
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
Authorities are reportedly investigating “whether Tesla’s Autopilot system played a role after a Model 3 left the roadway…slammed through a brick house at high speed and fatally struck Matha Avila as she sat inside,” the New York Post reported.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now investigating the crash. Tesla will work with the agency to provide them with whatever information they need in order to clarify the cause of the crash.
Similarly, Tesla had claims of a fatal accident in Harris County, Texas, a few years ago. Early reports indicated that Full Self-Driving was the cause of the crash. After the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) worked with Tesla, the agency proved there was “no use of the Autopilot system at any time during this ownership period of the vehicle, including the time frame up to the last transmitted timestamp on April 17, 2021.”
Tesla alleged “driverless” crash in Texas: What is known so far
“Application of the accelerator pedal was found to be as high as 98.8 percent,” the NTSB said in their findings. The highest recorded speed in the five seconds leading up to the impact was 67 miles per hour. The area where the crash occurred is residential, and Texas State laws have default speed limits of 30 MPH in residential streets.
This appears to be a similar situation. However, an investigation will prove what happened for sure.
SpaceX announced today that it commenced its first-ever public bond offering, marking a significant step in the newly public company’s capital markets strategy.
The company announced an offering of senior unsecured notes expected to raise at least $20 billion.
The move comes just a short time after SpaceX completed one of the largest initial public offerings in history. In mid-June, the company priced shares at $135 and raised more than $85 billion, propelling founder Elon Musk’s net worth past the trillion-dollar mark and giving the firm substantial liquidity.
🚨 SpaceX has announced its inaugural offering of senior unsecured notes.
The net proceeds will be used to repay outstanding loans under its bridge loan facility in full.
This inaugural debt offering represents a financing milestone for SpaceX, which previously depended… pic.twitter.com/pcOZuVbTRv
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 22, 2026
According to the company’s SEC filing, the net proceeds from the notes will be used primarily to repay in full the outstanding borrowings under its existing bridge loan facility, cover related fees and expenses, and fund general corporate purposes. The offering is being conducted under Rule 144A, as well as Regulation S, targeting qualified institutional buyers and non-U.S. investors. Notes will be unsecured obligations ranking equally with other unsubordinated debt.
The $20 billion bridge loan was used to refinance approximately $17.5 billion in higher-cost “junk” debt tied to X and xAI. SpaceX had merged with xAI in February 2026 in an all-stock deal. The bridge facility, which matures in September 2027, had represented the bulk of SpaceX’s long-term debt.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
In connection with the bond launch, SpaceX disclosed it held approximately $100.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June 19. Investor calls began on the announcement date, with pricing and launch expected shortly thereafter. Rating agencies have assigned investment-grade ratings to the proposed bonds, reflecting confidence in SpaceX’s dominant position in commercial launches and the growth trajectory of its Starlink internet offering.
The debt raise also allows SpaceX to optimize its balance sheet by replacing short-term, higher-cost bridge financing with longer-date, lower-cost fixed-income securities. This provides greater financial flexibility to support capital-intensive initiatives, including the development of Starship, the expansion of the Starlink constellation, and the integration of AI capabilities following the xAI combination.
SpaceX shares (NASDAQ: SPCX) fell sharply on the news, dropping over 16 percent overall on the market on Monday. The stock had surged initially after debuting but pulled back amid profit-taking and broader market dynamics.
Overall, the bond offering underscores SpaceX’s transition to a mature public company with access to diverse funding sources. It positions the firm to pursue its long-term vision of multiplanetary expansion and AI infrastructure, while maintaining a disciplined approach to its capital structure in a high-growth but capital-heavy industry.
SpaceX confirmed today that it has officially signed its third massive compute deal, providing compute at its Colossus data center in Southaven, Tennessee.
Reflection AI will gain immediate access to NVIDIA GB300 chips at SpaceX’s Colossus 2 data center. In return, Reflection will pay SpaceX $150 million per month starting on July 1, with total payments reaching approximately $6.3 billion if the contract runs through its duration, which is until 2029. Either party can terminate the agreement with 90 days’ notice after the initial three-month period.
CNBC first reported the deal.
🚨 SpaceXAI has agreed to a new compute deal with Reflection AI.
Reflection gets access to NIVIDIA GB300s, and will pay $150M per month to SpaceXAI for the compute. pic.twitter.com/bNPare8U5u
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 22, 2026
This latest partnership highlights SpaceX’s strategy of commercializing its massive Colossus supercomputing infrastructure, originally developed to power Elon Musk’s Grok AI models. The company has rapidly expanded its customer base in the AI sector following its February 2026 merger with xAI, a transaction that valued the combined entity at $1.25 trillion.
SpaceX has previously signed significant compute deals with other major players.
It granted Anthropic exclusive access to the full capacity of its Colossus 1 data center, which exceeds 300 megawatts and includes over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs. Details from SpaceX’s IPO filings indicate Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, potentially generating around $45 billion over the term of the deal.
Additionally, Google agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million per month for compute capacity from October 2026 through June 2029. This 32-month period will provide Google access to roughly 110,000 NVIDIA GPUs, along with supporting processors and memory. Capacity ramps up through September at a reduced fee, with termination options after the first year.
SpaceXA also established arrangements for computing power with Cursor, an AI coding startup. SpaceX acquired them in a $60 billion all-stock deal.
These arrangements position SpaceX’s collective position as an AI infrastructure powerhouse with high-margin revenue potential. The Google deal alone could generate nearly $29.5 billion over its term, while the Reflection contract adds another $6.3 billion.
Combined with the Anthropic arrangement, SpaceX stands to realize tens of billions in revenue from compute leasing in the coming years, which diversifies beyond SpaceX’s traditional rocket launches and Starlink operation.
The deals underscore growing demand for advanced AI training and inference capacity amid chip shortages and surging model development needs. Reflection, valued at $25 billion and focused on “American open intelligence” with government and national security ties, cited recent restrictions on closed models as validation for open-source approaches.
For SpaceX, the partnerships transform capital-intensive data centers into flexible revenue sources while supporting its broader AI ambitions after the company has gone public.
Tesla finally clarifies fatal Texas crash, confirms driver manually overrode acceleration
SpaceX makes $20 billion move to optimize its balance sheet
